The 8th annual U.P. Fall Beer Festival will go down in the books as one of the most out of control events in the city’s history
**Editor’s note we decided to remove a photo from a previous years event – but it you have photos from this year please email or send via facebook. Did this because this year by numerous accounts was nuts.
Marquette and regional beer barons no doubt cashed in – but they allowed the fest to get out of control – by all accounts.
We have a question for the organizers of the beer fest: How did you let it get so out of control?
Then the chaos spilled into the streets.
We have police audio on the following incidents:
Marquette Bars were out of control and one even let overflowing toilet sewage pour into the bar without lifting a finger to stop it – police complained the staff refused to fix problem so cops had to handle it.
Several women passing out in porta potty bathrooms
People exposing themselves and urinating in public
People urinating behind the event trailers
Public brawls and drunken stupid behavior
Stolen Cars
Drunk driving car accidents
People passed out
Drunk driving arrests
Marquette’s officials need to think long and hard before they let this chaos loose again on the streets.
“The Gasp” – Important USCG Lake Superior warning to swimmers: Honoring memory of those who died in June 2016 tragic double drowning and honoring rescuers at Little Presque Isle near Marquette, MI
Urgent Update: Video honoring those involved in a tragedy on Sat., June 11, 2016 at Little Presque Isle near Marquette, MI. – Remembering the victims and rescuers, startling stats, and a USCG message to ALL entering Lake Superior that you should watch
USCG urgent warnings abut Lake Superior; Honor victims and rescuers from tragic June 2016 double drowning
(Marquette) – The first drownings on Lake Superior in 2016, the deaths of two Northern Michigan University students last weekend brings to 450 the number of drownings on the Great Lakessince 2010.
The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project (GLSRP) keeps track of drowning statistics.
In 2016 alone, the GLSRP has tracked 14 Great Lakes drownings.
22-year-oldKaylilyn “Kayli” Suzanne Tansey, 22, of Grand Ledge and Antigo, WI native Justin Schroepfer, 24, of Rhinelander both drowned this past Saturday, June 11, 2016.
And while these beloved Northern Michigan University students are painfully heart-wrenching statistics, friends and loved ones will tell you that much more.
“Kayli” loved the water and is pictured with her many dogs and horses – that show how her love for animals and nature was intuitive – even working at a Marquette grooming business. Her services will be this Saturday, June 18, 2016
The other victim was one of the rescuers.
Funeral services were held yesterday (Thurs., June 16, 2016) for athlete and water lover Justin Schroepfer, who drown while attempting to save struggling swimmers. Schroepfer left behind the “love of his life” fiancée Suzy Solinand was known for his baseball and other athletic skills during high school and college.
Kaylilyn “Kayli” Tansey and Abigail Lynn Sprinkle, both 22, of Marquette were swept off a popular wading area that connects the mainland to an island named Little Presque Isle. Gusty winds, choppy 3 to 6 foot seas, and a very strong current made the journey deadly, according to the United States Coast Guard (USCG).
“The wind and the current was coming out of the northwest and it was cutting along the lake shore and between Little Presque isle point and Little Presque Isle island,” said Timothy Koscielny, USCGBoatswain’s Mate Second Class USCG Station Marquette.
“The (3 to 6 foot) waves were causing a large current to run along the lake shore that was ripping through the point and the island,” Koscielny said.
“That’s was caused them to come off of the shoaling,” Koscielny said referring to the two women who were crossing the popular wading area between the point and the island at Little Presque Isle.
“The message is – if you are going to be in Lake Superior – especially this time of the year – the water temp is right around 50 degrees,” Koscielny said adding hypothermia is a big factor. “Hypothermia still sets in whether or not the outside temperature is 40 degrees or if we are reaching up toward the 80s.”
“That cold water – when you hit it and you submerge in it – you get a gasp reflect – your body is instinctive,” Koscielny said. “You body is going to want to take in a big gasp of air and you are going to do that regardless if your head is above water or below water. And the only thing that is going to help with that is wearing a life jacket.”
“If people are going to cross over to Little Presque Isle island – go with a life jacket. If you are going to be swimming offshore take a life jacket with you. That’s going to help us as rescuers. If you go in the water – or get pulled out by a current – its going to keep you up on the surface and make them able to find you.”
Goodman shared a Marquette Police Department Facebook reminder about the dangers of strong currents in Lake Superior.
If you find yourself in a current – never fight it – let it spit you out to the side – and don’t panic. Easier said than done when it hits you suddenly – but a must to survive. For more information listen to advice on surviving a current in our new video.
The shoal is usually about waste deep or so and its a popular crossing. It’s one of several current plagued locations that are safe one day and moments later are deadly having killed NMU students and others along the Lake Superior shore in Marquette and elsewhere dating back at least 40 years.
It’s a trek that thousands have taken as we show in a video dedicated to the victims and rescuers – that also contains as warning from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) that all those entering Lake Superior should watch. Upper Peninsula Breaking News would like to thank all those whose video and photos are used in the video – as if it only saves one life your generosity is underlined.
Three others helped in the rescue.
Alexandria Borowski, 24, of Marquette provided life vests to Nicholas Leach, 27, of Marquette and Emily Goodman, 24, of Marquette, who rescued Sprinkle from treacherous Lake Superior – as beautiful as she is deadly.
Tansey and Sprinkle both worked or had worked at Poets Pet Parlor Doggie Day Care. Sprinkle as a as a “Survivor Play Date Chaperon.” Poets Pet Parlor is a “full service dog grooming, daycare, and boarding facility” in Marquette. It’s not surprising that Tansey worked there since the place in her heart for animals was innate and a vital part of her life.
Both attended NMU.
Abigail Sprinkle updated her profile picture to honor her friend Kaylilyn Tansey – both pictured after swimming in Lake Superior:
“No matter where my dreams take me, I’ll always hope they take me to you,” Sprinkle wrote late on June 11 just after loosing her friend and fellow animal lover.
As all of you have seen, I lost a dear friend on Saturday afternoon at Little Presque Isle. That very same afternoon, a man who I didn’t know was also killed trying to rescue my friend. After reading a few of the news articles that have been written, I feel like it is my duty to Kayli to clarify a couple things for everyone.
There was no cliff- jumping involved. They weren’t swimming off the side of the island like the news articles’ photos suggest. They weren’t doing anything different than you or I have done a dozen times before.
We have all walked this walk. Three measly feet of water stands between land and the Isle. (Pictured here for those of you unfamiliar.) I cannot even count, from the very start of my days here in Marquette, how many times I willingly walked across, itching for the adventure that awaited on the other side.
And of all of the times I wadded through that water, I never ONCE thought my life was in danger. I could look down into the clear lake and see my toes and the sand and rock beneath my feet. I stopped and took pictures on that walk.
I stopped and sat in the water. I submerged myself right there, butt on the bottom of the lake, and I felt no impending threat to my life. But the water I was in was not the water that took Kaylilyn‘s life.
What was once calm, is now rough, rigid, and unwelcoming. Yes, a current and undercurrent have always existed there, but they were not vicious like this. Kayli made it to the Isle for one last adventure, but it was on her way back that she was taken away from us. The sun was shining, it was 80 degrees, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the beaches were packed with people.
We all were out that day. And I have no idea how or why I chose to go to a different spot that afternoon when the very day before I had spoken about wanting to go explore Presque for my first time this year.
Kayli was doing what we all did: we walked there and then when we walked back. Simple right? Kayli wasn’t jumping off the cliffs or fooling around. She didn’t have bad judgement, she just was an unlucky pawn in mother nature’s warning. She is warning us NOT to go to those waters anymore, unless you are wearing a life jacket. No exceptions. Kayli was tall and strong and able.
And so was the man who jumped in to save her. Neither of them could defeat that water, so don’t think you could either. Do not go to Little Presque Isle unless you have the safety precautions now necessary to wade across.
A life jacket is a life saver. Don’t test the waters. Let this be a lesson to all that water is not constant but changing. The Earth is always changing and we have to adapt to adventure safely.
Please share this so that every current and future Northern student, Marquette resident, Yooper, tourist, or anyone else who could be in danger here knows how to stay safe.
(This photo was taken the day after we lost Kayli, when the world had so clearly darkened. The sun came out today for the first time though, so better days are ahead
——-
Below we tell you more about those involved in that tragic event at Little Presque Isle near Marquette, MI on that fateful Saturday (June 11, 2016). Also links to information about the USCG and organizations that try to prevent drownings on the Great Lakes.
Special thanks to the Chicago-area band “Dragon Fire Parade” for use of their song “Saturnalia”
Kaylilyn Tansey Memorial
22-year-oldKaylilyn “Kayli” Suzanne Tansey of Grand Ledge, near Lansing, died Saturday, June 11, 2016. Arrangements handled by Holihan-Atkin-Barclay Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Grand Ledge. Visitation is 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 18 2016 at the funeral home followed by the service.
Sprinkle worked at Poets Pet Parlor; as a “Survivor Play Date Chaperon.”
Both attended NMU.
Sprinkle, an apparent numbers wiz, is a native of Milford, MI – located about an hour from her friend’s home in Grand Ledge. Sprinkle studied accounting/CPA at NMU and tutored NMU accounting students.
A survivor who misses her dear friend, Sprinkle is well known in the Marquette area and will need her sense as is shown in her Facebook description of former jobs – having worked as a “DoezNutz Grabba” at the Huron Mountain Bakery, a “sammich artist” at Jimmy John’s; a cashier at Buffalo Wild Wings and “former depoopifier” at Camp Dearborn and a former Trabajador (feminine Spanish means hard-working female) at the Milford Bakery.
Abigail Sprinkle updated her profile picture to honor her friend Kaylilyn Tansey – both pictured after swimming in Lake Superior:
“No matter where my dreams take me, I’ll always hope they take me to you,” Sprinkle wrote late on June 11 just after loosing her friend and animal lover.
Rescuer Alexandria Borowski, 24, of Marquette is a legal assistant at Bridges and Bridges, P.L.C.
Rescuer (who gave his life) and NMU student Justin Schroepfer, 24, former Antigo resident, currently living in Rhinelander, died while attempting to save struggling swimmers on Saturday, June 11, 2016 in Marquette, MI.
Funeral services were held yesterday (Thursday, June 16, 2016) at Peace Lutheran Church with Rev. David Karolus officiating. Burial was at Elmwood Cemetery.
Visitation was held Wednesday from 4 -8 pm at Bradley Funeral Home in Antigo and Thursday from 9:30-11 a.m. at Peace Lutheran Church.
Arrangements announced for beloved NMU student and drowning victim Kaylilyn Suzanne Tansey , 22, of Grand Ledge, MI by Holihan-Atkin-Barclay Funeral Home in Grand Ledge, MI
Visitation is from 1-3 p.m. Saturday June 18, 2016
450 Great Lakes Drownings since 2010 GREAT LAKES, USA – The Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project(GLSRP) drowning statistics. In 2016, the GLSRP has tracked 14 Great Lakes drownings. Overall since 2010, the GLSRP has tracked 450 Great Lakes drownings.
Full statistics here 74 drownings in 2010 87 in 2011 101 in 2012 67 in 2013 54 in 2014 53 in 2015 14 to date in 2016 The first drownings this year on Lake Superior
——-
(Right) Nicholas Leach, 27, of Marquette, swam to victims (Left) Emily Goodman, 24, of Marquette, swam to victims
Funeral services held for rescuer – who gave his life – Justin Schroepfer, 24, a former Antigo, WI resident
Funeral services were held on Thursday, June 16, 2016 at Peace Lutheran Church with Rev. David Karolus officiating. Burial will take place in Elmwood Cemetery.
Visitation was held at the Bradley Funeral Home in Antigo and at the Peace Lutheran Church.
Bradley Funeral Home & Crematory
P.O. Box 101
1550 Neva Road, Hwy 45
Antigo, Wisconsin 54409
Air Station Traverse City
1175 Airport Access Road
Traverse City, MI. 49686
(231) 922-8212
(231) 922-8210 Search & Rescue Line
——-
First responders from the Coast Guard, Marquette County Rescue and Marquette Township Fire Dept. transport 16 people from Little Presque Isle off Marquette, MI on April 12, 2015
A large area of ice that the persons used to get onto the island weakened and broke away creating a 30-foot gap between them and the mainland. (U.S. Coast Guard photos by Fireman Billy Sallie)
Special thanks to the Chicago-area band “Dragon Fire Parade” for the use of their song “Saturnalia”
Sat·ur·na·li·aˌsatərˈnālyə/
Noun: Saturnalia
The ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December, which was a period of general merrymaking and was the predecessor of Christmas. An occasion of wild revelry.
Coastal scientists have been investigating rip currents for more than 75 years. This research has been conducted through field observations and measurements, laboratory measurements and wave tank experiments, and computer and numerical modeling. The mechanics of rip current development are complex and involve interactions between waves and currents, waves and water levels, waves and the shape of the nearshore bottom (bathymetry), as well as wave-wave interaction.
Rip currents can occur along any coastline that features breaking waves. Scientific investigations of wave and current interactions along the coast have shown that rip currents are likely present on most beaches every day as a component of the complex pattern of nearshore circulation.
As waves travel from deep to shallow water, they eventually break near the shoreline. As waves break, they generate currents that flow in both the offshore (away from the coast) and the alongshore directions.
Currents flowing away from the coast are called rip currents.
Rip currents are a result of complex interactions between waves, currents, water levels and nearshore bathymetry. These current systems such as alongshore and cross-shore (onshore/offshore) water motion. Along all coastlines, nearshore circulation cells may develop when waves break strongly in some locations and weakly in others.
These weaker and stronger wave breaking patterns are most often seen on beaches with a sand bar and channel system in the nearshore zone. A rip current forms as the narrow, fast-moving section of water travels in an offshore direction. Rip currents can also result from a wave’s natural variability or when a current traveling along the shoreline encounters a structure such as a groin or jetty and is forced offshore.
Rip current strength and speed varies. This variability makes rip currents especially dangerous to uninformed beachgoers. Rapid fluctuations or pulses in wave groups can quickly generate rip currents with velocities measured up to 8 feet per second.
Rip currents can occur along any coastline with breaking waves. Although rip currents are often present daily on many beaches, the velocities may be too slow to be a threat to experienced swimmers. However, their inherent variability makes them especially dangerous to unwary or uninformed beachgoers.
Changes in the size of the incoming waves can cause pulses in the strength of a rip current, which can be dangerous to all swimmers and anyone entering the surf.
Although rip currents are not caused by tides, the water level (tide elevation) at the coast may have an impact on rip current speed and strength. Generally, rip current velocities increase as water levels (tide elevation) decrease.
Rip current velocities also typically increase as wave heights increase. An increase in the height of incoming waves can result in sudden increases in water depth and rip current velocities. These suddenchanges or pulses in water depth and current speed can catch bathers off-guard. Rip current pulsations are extremely dangerous to all swimmers!
While average rip current velocities of 1 to 2 feet per second do not pose serious hazards to strong swimmers, rip currents may rapidly reach or exceed velocities of 3 feet per second.
Also, rapid fluctuations or pulses in wave groups can quickly generate rip currents with extreme velocities that have been measured up to 8 feet per second; this is faster than an Olympic swimmer can sprint! If a swimmer is caught in a rip current, attempting to swim directly back to shore against the seaward flowing current can result in exhaustion and possible drowning.
Rip currents are usually narrow (~ 20 to100 feet in the alongshore direction), may extend hundreds of feet offshore, and generally span the entire water column. However, offshore, or outside the surf zone, they tend to be confined near the surface.
Rip currents do not pull people under water; they pull people away from shore. Drowning deaths usually occur when people are unable to keep themselves afloat and swim back to shore. This may be due to fear, panic, exhaustion, a lack of swimming skills, or any combination of these factors
Some shorelines are characterized by permanent rip currents which may be found in a fixed location such as a break in a reef or other hard structure.
Some rip currents are persistent, lasting for many days or months in one location. Rip currents may also migrate along a stretch of coastline. Rip currents may also be ephemeral, forming quickly and lingering for a few hours or days before dissipating and disappearing.
Rip currents are not rip tides.
A specific type of current associated with tides may include both the ebb and flood tidal currents that are caused by egress and ingress of the tide through inlets and the mouths of estuaries, embayments, and harbors.
These currents may cause drowning deaths, but these tidal currents or tidal jets are separate and distinct phenomena from rip currents. Recommended terms for these phenomena include ebb jet, flood jet, or tidal jet.
Undertow, an often misunderstood term, refers to the backwash of a wave along the sandy bottom. After a wave breaks and runs up the beach face, some of the water percolates into the sand, but much of it flows back down the beach face creating a thin layer of offshore-moving water with a relatively high velocity.
This backwash can trip small children and carry them seaward. However, the next incoming wave causes higher landward velocities, pushing them back up on the beach. Undertow does not pull you under water or out to sea.
Adventurous boaters can find a remote paradise on Michigan’s Isle Royale.
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
— from The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Marquette Township, MI) – Two people drown on Saturday afternoon at Little Presque Isle in the frigid waters of Lake Superior near Marquette after fighting strong currents and waves.
On Saturday afternoon (June 10, 2016), the rescue teams from U.S. Coast Guard Station Marquette and the Marquette Township Fire department were called to two swimmers in distress at Little Presque Isle, just north of Marquette.
Lake Superior
One of the drowning victims is a man in his 20s – who tried to helped the other drowning victim – a 22-year-old female.
That 24-year-old man was reportedly among those trying to helped two 22-year-old women in distress in the very cold water of Lake Superior that has very strong currents and waves were choppy.
The women had been wading and reportedly tried to make it to a rock when the currents got the best of them. Several people tried to get life preservers to the women, but were only able to rescue one of the 22-year-old women.
Lake Superior’s frigid waters and strong currents are sometimes deceiving.
The bodies of both victims have been recovered – and no names have been released. Upper Peninsula Breaking News is awaiting more information from the U.S. Coats Guard Station Marquette.
The Lake Superior surface water temperature near Marquette is approx. 45 degrees Fahrenheit. At the time weather conditions on Lake Superior were reported to be northwest winds 15 to 25 knots. waves 2-4 feet – subsiding to 1-3 feet.
Photo by Dale Fisher, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library. Taken on May 25, 1986 Photo of the United States Coast Guard Marquette Lighthouse on Lake Superior at Marquette, Michigan
First responders from the Coast Guard, Marquette County Rescue and Marquette Township Fire Dept. transport 16 people from Little Presque Isle off Marquette, MI on April 12, 2015
A large area of ice that the persons used to get onto the island weakened and broke away creating a 30-foot gap between them and the mainland. (U.S. Coast Guard photos by Fireman Billy Sallie)
Offshore Lake Superior boating: iPhone video “while piloting along the Keweenaw Peninsula from Eagle Harbor to Great Sand Bay” by Jay SeaPublished on June 20, 2012
“The message is – if you are going to be in 
Voice of
The 
Upper Peninsula Breaking News by Greg Peterson 
